Worlds Collide
by Glass Vial
Summary: 10 and Rose crash land in the Torchwood Hub, opening up a can of worms for Jack and his team. AU fic written by myself and a friend of mine named Danny. Chapters will be credited accordingly.
1. Crash Landing

"Doctor, what's that noise?" Rose walked into the TARDIS control room with a puzzled look on her face. The Doctor poked his head out from underneath the control panel.

"What noise?" He asked her, although it was muffled by the fact he was holding the sonic screwdriver in his mouth.

"That noise." She indicated the high-pitched beeping noise.

"Oh... erm..." He jumped up and looked at the scanner screen. "That's... not good. No, not good at all. Erm..."

"You don't know, do you?" She sighed, and he glared at her.

"I do know. It's a... it's a..." You could practically see the lightbulb pop up above his head. "It's a warning."

"What sort of warning?"

"We're going to crash. Wait, what?!" He ran over to the other side of the panel as the TARDIS began to shake. "Rose, grab onto something!"

*

"Jack, put Ianto down and come and look at this." Owen called over. Sighing, Jack and Ianto walked out of Jack's office and over to Tosh's computer, where everyone else was stood.

"What, Owen?" Jack looked at the computer screen.

"That. There's never been anything like that before."

"The Rift activity levels are off the scale, Jack." Tosh explained. "Something's coming through. Something big. And it's coming fast."

"Where's it headed?" Ianto asked nervously.

"I don't know." Tosh was about to say more, but she was interrupted by a strange siren-like noise.

"What is that?" Gwen looked around. Jack's head shot up from the screen - he knew that sound anywhere. Sure enough, as the sound got louder a breeze picked up inside the Hub, sending files and paper everywhere.

"What the hell? Seriously, what the hell?" Owen yelled as the files he'd spent three hours sorting out were blown across the room. Jack couldn't help but smile as he saw the glowing blue light appear, but he wasn't greeted with the familiar sight of the TARDIS materialising. Instead, he was greeted with the sight of the blue police box crashing into Gwen's desk.

"Well, that doesn't normally happen." He murmured, running towards the box.

"My stuff!" Gwen cried.

* * *

_[Ellie]_


	2. Old Acquaintances

There was one final shake and a large crash and Rose felt the TARDIS become still under her feet once again. She took one deep breath to try to remain as calm as possible before looking at the Doctor.

"What happened?" She asked in a slightly overwhelmed tone of voice.

"Well... I'm not quite sure... But it would seem to me as if the TARDIS is losing power." He responded.

The Doctor had the unique ability to always be able to at least _seem_ calm no matter what their current predicament was. They could be about to be killed by a Dalek, and the Doctor might very well start chatting with it. Whether this was simply because he had so little fear nor ability to shut up, or whether he actually put an effort into it, Rose was never quite sure, but she knew it could be an asset to him, often biding them time or helping them uncover valuable information.

This time, however, Rose was starting to lose her patience.

"Do you have any idea what's causing it or even just an idea where we are?" Rose was having trouble keeping the exasperated tone out of her voice. It was one thing to travel to a pre-determined location, it was quite another to face potential dangers they knew nothing about.

Of course, she had been warned from the beginning that travelling with the Doctor would be dangerous, and wasn't that excitement of not knowing what was coming next one of the main reasons she loved travelling with him so much? Life with the Doctor was definitely a hell of a lot less boring than her life back on earth.

"No, absolutely no idea. But, seeing as we'll be stuck here until I do, I guess I'll have to figure it out eventually. As for where we are, well that's easily figured out." The Doctor was talking a mile a minute by now, his voice steadily getting louder, as if the situation was actually somehow making him cheerful.

As the Doctor said these last words, he held one of his arms up for Rose and gestured towards the door with the other. Rose finally let go of whatever it was she had grabbed onto during the impact, and reluctantly linked her arm with the Doctor's. She knew that when the Doctor had an idea set in his mind, there was absolutely no use arguing with him, and at any rate, there wasn't much else they could do at the moment.

*

Gwen ran after Jack, stopping next to him in front of the blue box. She had hardly had a moment to mourn the loss of her desk, when she saw the door begin to open.

_Great. _Gwen thought, surveying the box once more. It appeared to be a police telephone box straight out of 1950s era London, and the last thing she needed was to have another person fallen out of their own time to deal with. The last time that had happened, things hadn't exactly gone smoothly. The man who walked out of the box was tall and quite skinny. The combination made him quite gangly in appearance, but he was strangely attractive as well. He had short brown hair, and appeared to be in his early thirties. A younger blonde-haired girl came out and stood beside him, investigating her surroundings just like Gwen had the box just a second ago. Gwen wasn't sure what to expect at that moment, but what came next was definitely not it.

"Oh brilliant! See Rose, I told you everything would be alright!" The tall man said, in his strong and confident voice. He smiled as he said this, looking first at the girl, who Gwen figured must be Rose, and then at Jack, who smiled back and then began to laugh that big hearty laugh that was so typical Jack. Gwen loved that laugh, as did most people that heard it. Jack then stepped forward and embraced the man in a big hug.

"Couldn't get enough of me last time, huh?" Jack said, starting to laugh once again.

"Well, I wouldn't put it quite like that." The man responded, this time joining in Jack's laughter. The Captain then moved over to Rose and gave her an even bigger hug, and a small kiss on the cheek. He held her out at arm's length, looking her over. "Beautiful as ever. Great to see you again by the way Rose."

The girl smiled and pulled in a small shocked breath before speaking.

"I never thought I'd see you again Jack!" She said, her voice rising in obvious excitement. "I thought you were dead... I mean... the Daleks..." She stammered slightly, in a mixture of the two emotions.

"Nope, you know I'm better than some Dalek." Jack responded.

"Jack!" Gwen practically shouted, "Who the fuck are these people? How do you know them? And what's a Dalek?" Annoyance practically gushed out of every syllable she spoke. Jack turned to her, giving her that 'oh crap' look that let her know he had forgotten her presence there. He turned back to their two mysterious guests then.

"Right then, i suppose i should introduce you to my team." He said, a bit frantically. "That there is Gwen Cooper," He said, pointing in Gwen's direction, but she was too shocked and annoyed to say anything back. "Over there is Owen Harper." Gwen spun around to see Owen standing right behind her. She was just as bad as Jack, having not realised that the rest of the team had been stood there the whole time as well.

"_Doctor_ Owen Harper, actually," Owen said, smiling his slightly arrogant smile. "And Hi!" He said as almost an afterthought, holding up his hand as if to wave it. Jack just smiled back before turning to say

"The quiet girl over there is Toshiko Sato, commonly known as Tosh." Tosh smiled slightly, blushing a little, as if the mention of her shyness made her even more reserved. "And last but not least, the cute guy over there is Ianto Jones." Jack winked in Ianto's direction and he also smiled a slightly embarrassed smile.

However, Gwen noted that Ianto had been taking Jack's playful teasing a lot better lately. Then again, it wasn't as if everybody else didn't know they had a slightly more than professional relationship. Jack then turned around to them and his tone was very, very close to containing a note of pride.

"And these two here are my good friends the Doctor and Rose Tyler."

"Doctor who?" Gwen said, still quite perturbed.

"Oh just the Doctor." He said back rather quickly, as if posed with the question all the time. Which she supposed he was, with a name like that.

"I thought I told you that there's only room for one doctor here Jack?" Owen said, starting to relax around Jack's apparent guests. It appeared everybody else was actually, but Gwen wasn't having any of this.

"You'd better explain what in bloody hell is going on here Jack," Gwen snapped at him, and if looks could kill, hers might have had an effect even against Jack.

* * *

_[Danny]_


	3. Magnet for Trouble

"Gwen, there's no need to yell." Jack sighed. She always got annoyed when she didn't know what was going on. It was kind of irritating, if he was honest. "Before I joined Torchwood, I travelled with the Doctor and Rose."

"Wait, is this 'the right kind of doctor'?" Ianto asked.

"Yeah, it is." Jack laughed. "This box... It's called the TARDIS -"

"Which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." The Doctor interrupted helpfully. "It's a spaceship, basically. I intervened in the battle of Canary Wharf."

"We know." Owen piped up. "You've been scattered across history. It's thanks to you that we all have jobs, mate."

"Ah, yeah... Not one of our better trips, right Rose?" He laughed awkwardly.

"Definitely not." She nodded in agreement. She still couldn't believe Jack was here... And that he was alive. She made a mental note to ask him to fill her in later. Jack himself couldn't help but notice how surprised the girl had been to see him, and realised that maybe she didn't remember what had happened the last time they had met. Stranger things had happened, after all.

"Wait, wait, wait." Gwen frowned. "So you're _the_ Doctor? The Oncoming Storm? You're a _Time Lord_?"

"Last of. Well... Sort of." He exchanged a glance with Jack. "But yeah, Time Lord, Oncoming Storm, saviour of the world quite a few times and genuine all-round meddler in time and space." His grin was back. That manic grin that told anyone who saw it that he was something special.

"Blimey, and I thought Jack was bad enough with his titles." Owen joked.

"Less of that please, Owen." Jack shot him a look. "Happy now, Gwen?" She was still glaring at him. What was her problem?

"One last question?" Tosh broke her silence. "If you're the Doctor, then that means something bad is going to happen. Trouble follows you everywhere."

"That's a bit harsh..." The Doctor pointed out. "And I always overcome the trouble eventually, with a little help from Rose."

"_More_ than a little, in some cases." Rose teased.

"Besides, Tosh," Jack smiled. "We're Torchwood. We can handle anything."

"Now that you've said that the world's probably gonna end." Owen - ever the pessimist - rolled his eyes.

* * *

_[Ellie]_


	4. Fears

Jack exhaled loudly as if deep in thought, and swiveled his chair around to face his two guests. Rose was sat on the other side of his desk in an identical chair wearing a smile that showed without a doubt just how happy she was to see him again. The Doctor stood behind her, a look of mild annoyance apparent on his face. He had managed to convince the rest of Torchwood to stay downstairs and help clean up the mess the TARDIS had made of Gwen's desk and the workspace around it, leaving him and them alone finally. Which was very good as far as Jack was concerned; he had been getting annoyed at Gwen's persistent, bitchy questions, and he had stuff he wanted to ask the Doctor himself.

"So what do I have to thank for this unexpected visit?" Jack asked, moving his gaze towards the Doctor as he said it. He knew that even if he had addressed the question specifically to Rose, the Doctor would probably have answered him anyway. He seemed to have a bad habit of needing to prove his brilliance whenever possible, and of liking to hear himself talk.

"Aw, well, that's quite simple..." the Doctor said, trailing off towards the end as if he almost didn't want to finish his sentence at all. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other in the closest sign to an admittance of embarrassment as he was likely to ever give anyone. "We just sorta crashed." He said this last part almost too bluntly, as if wanting to admit to himself and his captive audience that the whole affair was no big deal at all.

Jack couldn't help chuckling a little when he heard this. The Doctor always liked to assert that he was in control of the situations he found himself in, and with the way he almost effortlessly came up with ingenious ways to get out of them, it was hard to argue with him on that point. So Jack found it quite amusing that he so obviously had no clue what was going on. Then again, it was probably just because that highly self-assured side of the Doctor reminded Jack in so many ways of himself. He often wondered if it was a characteristic common of people in a leadership position to pretend like they always knew exactly what was going on, even if he only did it to try to reassure the others.

Rose smiled a little back, but the Doctor's face contorted into a serious stare. "Haha, its very funny, only not really." His voice quickly lost its usually cheerful quality. "You see, the TARDIS just suddenly lost power. I've never seen anything like it. Which is saying a lot; after 903 years, I thought I'd finally seen everything. The thing is though, with the cause unknown to me, we may or may not have an immediate problem on our hands." He sounded genuinely overwhelmed, which was more than a little disconcerting to Jack.

*

Gwen just stood, flabbergasted, staring wide-eyed at the blue box (what had the Doctor called it, a TARDIS?) that now stood in the place of her desk. She supposed she should be grateful that it was mostly just paperwork that was now irretrievably stuck underneath it, although she had the funny feeling that she might have put her cell phone on the corner of her desk earlier, in which case it was now not even worth the effort of finding.

Tosh and Owen were slowly sorting out the papers that had flown off of the stacks on their desks and were now scattered across the floor, and Ianto had run off, presumably to get them all cups of coffee. It seemed as if they were trying their hardest to avoid her, but its not like she could blame them. She had just gone completely bezerk on Jack, and she was definitely still not in the best mood.

It was quite infuriating how Jack kept so much about his own life as well as Torchwood hidden away from them all. After all they knew about the Doctor, it was almost inconceivable to think that the one detail Jack had declined to mention was that the two of them were personal friends! However, Gwen was quickly interrupted from this train of thought as Owen broke the awkward silence by stating an idea she was sure she would have gotten to soon anyway.

"So, what do you guys think of this "Doctor" character anyway? I mean, can we trust him?" He stopped sorting paperwork as he said this, turning around to look first at Tosh, and then Gwen. She had also turned around by this point, although she was moderately certain that she was still giving Owen that same dumbfounded stare she had been directing toward the "TARDIS" a second earlier.

"Well, he is Jack's friend... " Tosh, always one to try to avoid and prevent arguments, replied. However, she said it so softly that the thought carried a very unconvincing tone. It was obvious none of them knew what to make of their unexpected visitors.

"That he never told us a thing about!" Gwen interjected, her voice once again coming out loud and angry. She couldn't help it, the idea of some alien they knew next to nothing about marching around their home away from home, and wrecking her stuff, just because he was "Jack's friend" was more than mildly annoying to her. It was just plain irritating to be honest! "He left before with this man, what if he does it again?" From the look in Tosh and Owen's eyes, she could tell that in that last short sentence she had summed up what was really bugging all three of them.

"Would that really be so bad?" Owen said in such a dry and hollow tone as to have the effect of implying the exact opposite.

"Don't even say that. You know it would," Ianto replied sadly, reappearing at that moment with a tray of coffee mugs. He handed one to each of the three of them, and then took the last for himself. He then took a long sip from the cup as if just the idea of Jack leaving made him need the comfort it provided.

They took that moment to just stand there, each in their own thoughts, but taking comfort in each other's presence. They really were more than just a team; They were each other's family.

* * *

_[Danny]_


	5. Weevil

"Rose, I want to talk to Jack, give me five minutes?" The Doctor looked over at her - that look that told her something was up.

"Sure..." She nodded, and went out of Jack's office. She heard the men's hushed conversation start as soon as she left. She looked around the Hub - all of the others had disappeared. "Oh well." She sighed to herself, deciding to take a look around. Rose being Rose, she found some of the files that the TARDIS had blown off Owen's desk and picked them up, putting them back in what she hoped was the right place. A strange growling sound came from the stairs at the far side of the room, and she went to investigate. She looked warily at the row of glass-walled cells, and stepped towards the first one. Despite herself, she screamed as a creature lunged at her from behind the glass.

"What was that?" Jack interrupted the Doctor.

"Rose!" The Doctor's eyes widened.

"It came from downstairs…!" Jack ran after the Doctor, who had already pelted out of the room.

*

Rose eyed the creature in the cell, not quite sure what to make of it. It bared it's teeth at her. She was blushing slightly, ashamed that she'd screamed. After travelling with the Doctor for as long as she had, she'd learnt not to judge things by appearances.

"Rose!" The Doctor jumped down the last three steps and ran to her side. "What's wrong?"

"Doctor, I…" She started to blush again, and just nodded towards the cell. He frowned, and looked.

"Right." He tensed, that steely determination that she knew so well in his eyes. At that moment, Jack ran down the stairs.

"Rose, you alright?" She didn't have a chance to reply before the Doctor started talking.

"Jack, would you like to explain to me _why_ you have a Weevil locked down here?" He walked so that he could see the other cells. "In fact, would you like to explain why you have _multiple_ Weevils locked down here?"

"They were in the city, what else were we meant to do when they started coming through the Rift? There's no way to get them back through to the other side." Jack defended himself.

"Oh, of course - _Torchwood_, always doing the right thing. Aliens invading? No problem! Just let Torchwood _lock them up_ and the human race is fine!" He ranted. "Just because they're aliens, Jack, doesn't mean you can be inhumane!"

* * *

_[Ellie]  
_


	6. Stranger

Jack watched as the Doctor stalked off in the direction they had just come from a few minutes ago. Rose looked back at him with a slightly pitying look, but just shrugged it off and followed closely behind the Doctor back out towards the main area of the hub. Jack, however, knew it wouldn't have helped matters to chase after them right away, especially since he could just barely hear them holding a whispered conversation. So he fought back his urge to continue trying to explain himself to them, and instead just stood there in as calm a manner as he could manage, even if there was no longer anybody around for him to hold his composure for.

Of course, he knew that as far as these things were concerned, the Doctor and him would always be on a completely different wavelength. Although it was so easy to forget thanks to his all too human appearance, the Doctor really was alien, and that was evident not just from his two hearts or his remarkable ability to evade death through regeneration. Perhaps the most alien thing about him was that he held a completely different set of morals from anybody Jack had ever known, from his old home in the 51st century or any of the times he had been in since.

Jack was far from immoral to the aliens they encountered, mostly due to the Doctor's influence, but he still sometimes found it hard to see how the Doctor could afford to give so many second chances in such perilous situations. He did what he did to save lives, and he just wished the Doctor could understand that. Locking a Weevil up was better than having innocent humans killed by one, at least as far as he saw it. Besides, if he didn't deal with the Weevil problem, UNIT probably would, and they had already shown a blatant inability to have any mercy.

After a moment of ranting that out internally, Jack sighed, as if not only to clear his mind of the rather useless arguments he had just formulated, but also to affect an effort to calm himself down. It would have worked too, if it weren't for what happened next.

One doesn't normally notice it, but the air around him is never perfectly still, nor is one ever in complete silence, no matter how much he might think otherwise. Or at least, that is, not usually. For as Jack turned to leave the vaults, that's exactly what he felt: such an unnatural stillness around him that it seemed as though not only had the earth stopped moving, but time has just ceased to exist, leaving him with nothing. Between that, and a silence so thick and penetrating it left a terrifying feeling in the pit of his stomach, he could almost have sworn he was someplace else entirely.

Except that a split-second and almost inaudible popping noise later, all of that ceased to exist again. No, instead the climate where Jack stood had changed entirely once more, and he felt a slight breeze roll past his face, making his hair ripple just slightly. It brought with it a smell that could only be described as the epitome of the word "odd," and something Jack thought tasted just slightly metallic, although he wasn't quite sure. But that was definitely not the most noticeable effect of whatever it was that had just happened.

For stood in front of Jack, where once there had been nothing but thin air and a distant doorway back to the main area of the Hub, there was a teenage girl! She wasn't a young teenager, mind, maybe 17 or 18 years of age if Jack had to guess, and it was obvious that she had experienced a lot for her years. She had shoulder length black hair that curled just slightly at the ends and stood out in stark contrast against her sickly pale complexion. The latter gave her a very frail appearance, but one only had to look into her piercing greyish blue eyes to see that she had determination and a strength of will that was to be admired. She wasn't very tall either, in fact, she was remarkably short, but it didn't take away from the air of authority she just naturally seemed to posess. This was a woman (for after actually taking her in, girl no longer seemed the right word) that obviously would be a force to be reckoned with for the wrong person. Jack just hoped he wasn't that person.

"Excuse me, but who exactly are you? and what are you doing in what I could essentially call my house?," Jack said, assuming the tone of voice he always used when facing down a potential threat. He figured it was best to get the first words in, and hopefully in that way gain the upper hand from the word go. He didn't much trust this strange young woman yet and it could never hurt to be in control of the situation at hand.

"Such typical Jack. By the way, since when did it become _yours_? I thought you were a team man, even if you never acted like it?" She grinned towards Jack as she said it, and he could tell she was trying her hardest not to laugh. This bitter sarcasm was definitely the one characteristic of hers that Jack was learning very quickly not to like. "We never did get along well, you and me, but right now really isn't the time for this."

It was just then that what she was saying clicked in Jack's brain and he said, in a tone that came out more shocked than he would have hoped, "Wait, you know me? Since when?"

"Look Jack, I really haven't got the time. Just trust me, even if only for this once." The way she said those words, with so much authority and yet with an utter sense of urgency that was starting to send panic through his bones, made Jack shut up right then and there and give her his full attention. He saw her glance quickly over her shoulder as if at someplace that didn't exist for Jack, and when she returned her gaze to him, she was much more wide-eyed than before. But she quickly muttered something that sounded vaguely like, "he's coming," and then the look of determination returned.

"Jack, I know you don't know me yet, but I know you. And trust me the circumstances aren't good. That's why I'm here; I've come to fix something that I fear is largely my fault. I'm sending this message back in time to you from a future that could be yours very soon if you don't listen to me. Got that?" Jack couldn't help nodding when she said these words, noticing that it was odd how quickly he had come to trust in what this girl was telling him, or at least in the importance of it. "You have to find me, I mean, the me in your time. Right now I can't tell you more than this: My name is Zaira. I know that isn't much of a hint, but you've always been incredibly clever, so I trust you'll get the job done." She said this as if it was a sorry for the fact that they hadn't gotten along under whatever circumstances they met before. It was obvious that whoever she was, and whatever quarrels they had had, she did respect him.

She then turned as if she was about to leave, but suddenly yet slowly spun back around, giving Jack a piercing look straight in the eyes. That is when she said what troubled him the most.

"And one more thing, Jack: Beware the big, bad wolf."

And that was when she vanished. And just as suddenly as it had happened, everything was back to normal.

But Jack didn't have time to observe that; he was already running to find the Doctor.

* * *

_[Danny]_


	7. Reasoning and Recurring Phrases

"Doctor . . .?" Rose asked quietly - tentatively - as she followed him through the Hub and into the TARDIS. She'd tried talking to him as soon as he'd stormed away from Jack, but it had been a very one-sided conversation if she was being honest. "That was a bit . . . Harsh, don't you think?"

He leant over the control panel, ignoring her question entirely. "Now, let's see if we can get this old thing working again, eh?" He kicked the lower part central column. "Ow. That never helps." He muttered, looking for his hammer.

"Doctor." She walked and stood in front of him. "You're trying to run away."

"What? No I'm not." He avoided her eyes. "This isn't running away, what're you on about? I'm just trying to . . . Trying to get the TARDIS working now, rather than after we've undoubtedly saved the world. You know I hate staying after we stop an invasion."

"I _know_ that you hate not knowing what's going on - and I also know you hate the fact that humans tend to discriminate against aliens, but we're not gonna change any time soon. You know one day we will - you've shown me that yourself. But even then, not everyone will be able to accept that. But one day, you know that things like Torchwood will stop locking aliens up simply _because_ they're aliens." She gently touched his arm, feeling the soft material of his brown suit underneath her fingertips. "Doctor, you can't leave now. What if they need you?"

"I . . ." How did she always know exactly what to say to make him lose track of what he was about to say? Whatever the reason, it worked every time. Actually, he was surprised at what she said. He'd always known that she understood why he was so opposed to creatures being locked up, but she had never managed to voice her understanding in such a way before. He sighed. "All right, fine. Although Torchwood seem perfectly capable of sorting whatever this is out for themselves." As he said this last part, the Doctor glared at nothing in particular.

"Now, you know that's not true." Rose laughed quietly. "They needed you before, they'll need you again. It's not like you to be that modest." She teased him, and he smiled.

"You win. But . . ." His eyes wandered back to the central column of his beloved ship. "Something _is_ wrong."

"I know. But we'll work it out." She slipped her arm through his, and they walked back into the Hub. No sooner had they stepped out of the TARDIS than Jack came running.

"Doctor, it's -" Neither of them could remember seeing Jack look this rattled before. Not for a long time, at any rate. "It's happening again."

"What's happening again?" The Doctor frowned.

"The . . ." Jack glanced awkwardly at Rose. "If I said I knew that two words signified the end of the world, what words would I mean?"

"_Bad Wolf_." Rose whispered, her eyes widening. "Jack, where did you hear them?"

"A girl - a woman - she just . . . _A__ppeared_ in front of me. She said . . . 'I've come to fix something that I fear is largely my fault. I'm sending this message back in time to you from a future that could be yours very soon if you don't listen to me'. She was talking about being from the future, that I didn't know her yet, but I would do."

"What else did she say?" The Doctor was unwaveringly serious at times like this.

"'You have to find me, I mean, the me in your time. Right now I can't tell you more than this: My name is Zaira.'" Jack quoted her word for word. The entire conversation was etched into his brain, and he had a feeling it would always be there. "I know, at one point, she said something that sounded like 'he's coming', but I'm not sure."

"Where does 'Bad Wolf' come into it?" The Doctor hadn't looked away from Jack. It was unnerving for Rose to see the two of them so clearly dismayed by this entire situation. In all honesty, she was worried, and she needed them to reassure her like they usually managed to.

"The last thing she said to me was, 'And one more thing, Jack: Beware the big, bad wolf.'" He looked at Rose again.

"Does that . . . Does that mean me?" She asked, looking up at the Doctor.

"No. _No_." He said, far too quickly. "It can't. I'd have . . . I'd have sensed something was wrong if it was you." He gripped her hand. "Jack, get your team back here."

"So, Jack, what's going on?" Toshiko asked, a slight frown on her face. She and the rest of the Torchwood Three team were sat around the table in the breifing room. The Doctor, Jack and Rose were stood in front of them.

"Yeah, _Jack_, what's happening?" Gwen made sure that the fact she wanted an answer from Jack and only Jack was clear.

"If you've found something a bit weird in the fridge again, I _swear_ it wasn't me!" Owen told him.

"It's something a bit more serious that finding an Adipose in the fridge, Owen." Jack replied. The team smirked at the reference to when one of Owen's many girlfriends had tried to lose weight via the Adipose diet. Suffice to say, she wasn't his girlfriend for very long.

"We have a very strong suspicion that the entire world could be about to end." The Doctor cut in. Their smiles disappeared.

"How strong a suspicion?" Ianto asked him. The three time travellers exchanged a nervous glance.

"Strong as in I'm certain it's about to happen. Suspicion as in . . . Well, it's not a suspicion at all. Based on previous events, it's as good as fact."

"Jack . . ." Rose whispered to the Captain. "Who's 'he'?"

* * *

_[Ellie]_


	8. Action Plan

Jack sighed as Rose voiced the one question that had been plaguing him this whole time. If there was such an imminent threat to the world, why hadn't Zaira, if that really was her name, told them who it was from? He supposed that meant that it was somebody they also wouldn't meet until the near future. But he couldn't shake the feeling that that was simply untrue. After all, she had obviously been worried about the danger of being caught . . . Did that mean she had been captured by their new (or not so new) enemy? All of these questions slowly inundated his mind, threatening to drown his sanity in nothing but confusion and lost hope, but he knew that he had to stay strong, if only for the sake of his team, and most of all, Rose.

He squeezed Rose's hand in the simplest response that he knew and leant his head down just enough to whisper in her ear. "I don't know Rose, but I'll do everything in my power to find out. And, I definitely won't let a thing happen to you. Remember what I told you when we fought together before?"

Rose bit her lip, twisting it back and forth a few times in deep thought, and then nodded slightly, murmuring the answer, "I think so . . ."

"You're worth fighting for. I meant it then, and I mean it even more now."

Upon hearing this, a faint pinkish red slowly worked its way up Rose's cheeks, making her look much more the part of her name, and, if Jack was to be honest, quite beautiful too. When he was sure nobody was looking, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek if only to recall what it had felt like so long ago.

Their intimate moment was, however, brought to an abrupt end as the Doctor availed himself of the opportunity to take charge. "Right!" he nearly shouted, jumping up slightly as he commonly did after mentally calculating a plan of action. He thus began his explaination, "Jack's had a visit from a woman claiming to be from the future, which from the circumstances he imparted to me in our previous conversation, I have no reason to refute. She claims to be more or less a friend, or at very least she knows Jack. Still, I think we'd all agree that it's wisest to be cautious, of course?" He was speeding up ever so slightly as he talked, as if his mind was moving much too fast for his own good. It was a bad habit that Jack had noted in him long ago (at least in his own timeline, for how many years had passed for the Doctor since he would never know), and possibly accounted for the reason why so few people ever had a bloody clue what he was going on about. At any rate, Jack let him continue, not wanting to start an argument over something so small. "Unfortunately, the only clue we have is her name, so we don't have much choice in the matter except to follow her instructions. You guys have access to police and government records, right?"

Tosh nodded in acquiescence as he said this, barely managing to squeeze in, "Yes, I've already written a program that searches all available databases for name matches in instances like this. And with a name like Zaira, I imagine we'll have a few leads in a matter of no time!" Tosh's smile grew as she said this, along with the effulgent qualities of her face. It was the closest thing that Jack had ever seen to pride in Tosh since . . . Well . . . The beginning of the whole time they had worked together.

"That's brilliant!" Jack had forgotten how perculiarly excited the Doctor could get in the face of danger until he said that, his face nearly splitting in two with that humongous doctor grin that almost always made Jack have to conceal a chuckle. "Tosh, you work on running that name through the databases and then the rest of us will follow your lead. Although, I personally think that Rose should be left in your very capable hands."

Rose's face contorted into one of stun and disapproval at the mere suggestion that she should be left behind, and Jack turned to face the Doctor and interrupt him with, "This is my team, Doctor, and my home, even if you would try to claim it as your own. It's my job to decide the course of action, and besides aren't you being just a bit unfair to her? She'd handled herself much better than you on numerous ocassions, and even saved your own ass a few times." Jack knew that he was being somewhat too harsh, but he also knew that sometimes the Doctor could be beyond all normal reasoning. He liked to imagine that he knew best for everyone simply through his Time Lord knowledge, whatever that entailed, even when that was very much untrue. In fact, Jack imagined that this could sometimes even be the cause of his own clouded judgement, after all, being the last of such a great race was bound to ocasionally go to one's head.

"You can take charge from here Jack, but I really must insist. We both know how much danger Rose could be in, and I'd rather not take any unnecessary risks," the doctor spoke, annoyance rising slightly in his voice, although he'd probably claim that weren't so.

But if the Doctor was annoyed then, Rose was just plain angry, and you could hear the impatience tinging her voice as she interjected. "Stop talking as if I'm not here. I'll stay if that's what you really want, but not because I'm not fully capable of tagging along, and I hope that we all realise that." Jack saw her glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, and she gave him a look that told him she was simply trying to avoid an argument at a time when it would be more harm than it was worth.

But he had barely registered this when a shout came from the next room, where, Tosh had removed herself to begin the actual work. "Found it!" she called out, matter of factly, and the other six of them jogged out to stare at the computer screen she was pointing at.

Jack was brimming with anticipation of the task at hand, not sure whether to still be delighted the Doctor was there to help out, or worried that something about the sudden timing of his crash landing now seemed much too coincidental to be a good omen. It was one of those moments of contrasts, and standing on the edge of such a momentously dangerous occasion, the fate of the world possibly resting in what may seem like the smallest of actions, made Jack much more scared than he would have liked to admit.

* * *

_Danny_


	9. Teamwork

Toshiko looked up as they ran in. Owen was the first to reach her computer, and he put a hand on the back of her chair as he read over her shoulder. She hid a smile that only Ianto, who'd moved to the computer opposite hers, noticed. For the most part, Ianto understood her feelings of unrequited love towards Owen - well, he did up to a point. Ianto's own unrequited office love-interest had turned out not to be unrequited after all.

"That doesn't look too good." Owen muttered as the other four caught up.

"What've we got, Tosh?" Ianto asked as he pulled up the information on his own screen. "Oh."

Gwen stood with Owen, while the Doctor and Rose followed Jack to Ianto's side.

"Only one Zaira in the whole United Kingdom." Jack noted.

"Well that's hardly a surprise, is it Jack?" Owen looked up at him. "That's a bit like saying 'oh look, there's only one polar bear on Barry Island, what a shocker!'" Rose giggled, and Owen winked at her. Jack shot them both disapproving looks and carried on reading.

"How far is that place from here, Jack?" The Doctor had pulled his glasses out of his pocket. Both Jack and Rose were convinced he didn't actually need them for reading, and that he just did it for effect.

"Five minutes along the main road, closer if we take the SUV."

"But Jack," Gwen appeared to be ignoring the Doctor's presence again. "There's two places on here."

"Oh." The Captain looked a little deflated. "Right then, looks like we'll need to split up." He looked at Rose, and she just shrugged.

"We agreed I'd stay here."

"With me." Tosh piped up, sensing the small flicker of tension returning from before. "You can help me with the databases, Rose, and we can keep in touch with the others through the comm system."

"Well that's that sorted." Jack looked visibly relieved. "Doctor, please don't take this personally, but I'd rather not go with you." The Time Lord blinked at him, about to make a catty comment. "I just think it'd be safer for everyone if I went to one place and you went to the other. So everyone had -"

"I get what you mean, Jack. So someone who can't die is there to defend the others." The Doctor finished for him, tactfully ignoring the widening of Rose's eyes.

"Gwen and Owen, will you go with the Doctor? Ianto, with me."

"Oh, and we can all guess what you two'll get up to." Owen rolled his eyes, but it was a good-natured jibe.

"Less of that please, Dr Harper." Jack pretended to be annoyed. "The other building is on the opposite side of the City, so you three can take the SUV -"

"I don't like cars." The Doctor admitted apologetically. Rose shook her head at him, and Jack laughed.

"Fine. You three can _walk_ to the building down the road. Me and Ianto will take the car."

"I'm not walking anywhere with those two." Gwen broke her silence, clearly irritated. Jack noticed the look on her face and sighed. They didn't have time for this.


	10. Comfort

Jack sighed and ran his hand through his neatly kept brown hair in an obvious sign of frustration. Then, assuming the powerful and commanding voice he reserved only for those moments when his patience ran paper thing, he said, "Look, Gwen, I know today hasn't been the best for you, but just because the Doctor and Rose are here doesn't mean I'm not having a hard time too. The world could be ending tomorrow for all we know, and there's much more important things at hand than your distrust and contempt of a man you've hardly even given a chance. So, either you can settle your differences and at least try to work together, or you can go home. Is that perfectly clear to you?" Ianto could tell that Jack had been trying to stay as calm as possible, as he spoke a little too evenly to be natural. Nearing the end, however, slight tints of anger began to stain his voice, making him doubtful that she had noticed.

As if in answer to his unspoke thoughts, Gwen loudly retorted back, "Thanks for your oh so caring suggestion. I'm supposed to just run off with the alien who's been Torchwood's enemy since it's very inception, and who also stole you away from us before. But, no, even that's not enough for you; I have to place my absolute trust in the bloke too? Of course I'm not gonna go with him, Jack!" And just like that, she turned around in a fit of rage and stalked off, leaving the rest of them behind in an uncomfortable pit of silence.

Owen was the first to trudge out of it's depths, yelling, "Oh, well ain't that just bloody brilliant!" and throwing up his arms in exasperation. Ianto noted that the same feelings of distress and impatience were apparent in each of their stances, as well as most likely his own.

Except Jack, of course, who simply stood there in as stoic a pose as possible, arms crossed over his chest and an aura of authority penetrating the air around him. Ianto knew that he never found it as easy as he made it look to be harsh to the team, often questioning his actions later in a flurry of guilt. At times like that, Ianto would hold him so close that their heartbeats collided, sending earthquakes of shivers up and down his spine. Jack would rant and ramble, his regrets washing over Ianto like tidal waves running along the sanes of a beach, but he'd never let them destroy the hidden beauty inherent in those moments, like actual waves would a sandcastle someone had built. Instead, he'd move his head slightly to take in the teary eyed man huddled up against him and dance his lips against the surface of Jack's in a chorus of, "you did the best you could. Just like you always do."

But, as Ianto let those sweet memories fill his mind with thoughts of a better place and time, he realised he had spaced out for the rest of Jack's briefing. It appeared that he hadn't missed much of any importance, but, despite knowing this, he was fairly sure that a deep crimson red had already tainted his cheeks. After all, Jack was giving him that questioning look that was marked for those times when he knew Ianto was thinking of him.

After Owen and the Doctor walked away, once again steeping the room in silence, Ianto grabbed Jack's hand. He knew it came out much quicker and more desperate than he had hoped, the sudden remembrances of a few minutes ago making him hunger for any and all contact with the much older man. They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity, Ianto scouring Jack's soul for the hints of love he had trusted were there this whole time. He was not disappointed, either, for they harboured a compassion and longing that his own surely mirrored back. He could feel his lips moving in a futile attempt to say something, anything, while simultaneously his heartbeat sang a tune that no words in existence could begin to describe. So he cut himself off before he even began, content just to drink in the other's presence.

Jack's features slowly slumped into the sort of fatigue that only hundreds of years of consistently watching the world nearly crumble out from under you could produce, and not for the first time, Ianto pitied the man. He had what every person in the whole word thought they wanted, or, to be more precise, the man would never stay dead! But, for what seemed like a blessing on the outside, when the wrapping paper got ripped off, what lay waiting was not so much a gift but a curse. Although he had most likely never admitted it to anybody else, Jack feared death now more than ever. It's icy embrace seemed to lay waiting in the shadows beyond every corner to pull him back into... well, nothing. For that was all that death truly brought, and although Ianto knew that the flashbacks, brutal images of his body being forceably torn away, could keep his lover tossing and turning for hours on end, it was this realisation that had seeped the real poison of terror into his soul. After all, it was hard to imagine how one could possess hope whilst knowing that everything he knew would one day be plunged into that blankness, leaving him alone each and every time.

Seeming to also be able to read Ianto's troubled mind, Jack moved in closer, letting the space between them melt away until they were captured in each other's arms. Lips caressed lips, and hands traced the edges of the opposite's body, seemingly etching the image into their hearts and souls. Passion painted Jack's beautiful face and showcased a need that Ianto never realised he possessed. Oh, Ianto always knew that he had needed Jack. It was apparent in every breath he took; How sometimes when they were separated for far too long the breaths shakily heaved their way out of his body in a mimce of the plight of his heart. While others, bathing in each other's presence, Ianto would feel the breaths catch in the back of his throat along with the three simple words he was much too scared to say. But he never imagined that he'd someday see it reflected back to him in the eyes of the man it was for. The force of that tremendous realisation instantly made his eyes well up with tears. Although they were a symptom of the immense happiness that flooded through him just then, he was even gladder to feel Jack's hand glide gently upward to wipe them all away. Invigorated by such a sweet sentiment, he slid his tongue between the other's lips, drawing the shape of a heart in his mouth. Their bodies became canvases on which to display their collective love for each other, and that was a masterpiece neither one of them wished to end.

Much too soon, however, Jack pulled slowly away, one final moan shuddering out to fill the void he created. Ianto glanced at the clock, and was thereby fairly positive that they only reason things hadn't progressed further was the five minutes that had already ticked away, each second one more than they actually had to spare. Jack sighed in a form of agreement, and slid his hand back into Ianto's own, obviously sensing that such a sudden distance was too much for the other to bear.

Thus comforting each other, they walked towards where the SUV was stored, until Jack stopped, turning his starlit gaze once more towards the younger man. And in the closest admittance to love that Ianto assumed he would ever hear, Jack whispered to him, not the three simple words he most longed to hear, but three that he could accept meant just as much.

"Thank you, Ianto."


End file.
